converting existing MAX files?

I have a sizable number of starship models (built using 3DS Max 2011 and earlier) that I would like to make available for 3D printing.

I've read the printing constraints and understand that it is far better to start with the 3D printing limitations in mind and build from there. Recreating all of the models from scratch is not a realistic option for me but before I give up on 3D printing, I wanted to ask if other have confronted and overcome this problem.

Are there any plugins, prodcedures, or advice that could make it feasible to turn a sloppy, highly detailed, starship model into something (probably far less detailed) that Shapeways could print?

Looking at a few of my models, the face count is high but within limits. It's the watertighness etc. that would cause problems as the ships are built out of a high number of intersecting shapes of various sorts. I imagine several are not watertight, and many probably have wierd normals (I use mirror a lot and that seems to flip normals just for fun .

Like I said I assume it's not possible, but it would be really cool (and profitable!) to offer ship miniatures to go with my renderings and deckplans, soI figured I would ask.

Mesh Lab might be worth a try. Its free and has some good mesh repair tools .NetFabb basic is also free, has some good tools also, but it only accepts STL format, unlike MeshLab, which accepts several types of formats. Hope this helps, I hate to see good models not getting put to use for cash.

Have any questions regarding Blender, and need fast answers, you are always welcome at the IRC Server Freenode, channel #blender. As a bonus, several there have experience in modelling for 3D prints.

I'm in the same position. I have many years of 3d models that I would love to see as real objects.

Honestly I think it just takes a lot of time.

I've been splitting models up into sections. Kind of like plastic kits, So they can be put together after printing.

Otherwise decide which details can be dropped and drop them and then just start attaching sections together, booleaning or whatever, make sure they're stitched and solid and keep on going. Yes, its the watertight stitching of vertices that takes the time, a huge massive amount of time. And then you need to make the model hollow if you want the cost to be reasonable.

Its taken me months of part time work to get one little machine ready to print. And thats only going to be a test, I'm not even expecting the first few to be very presentable.

Craftsmanship. If it could be done quickly everyone would be doing it right?

I don't have it working yet, but it's close. The mesh loses a lot of detail, but since the final product is going to be small, it might be ok. The 500k face limit is a bit of a roadblock though - especially if the final model is to be hollow.